Page 78 of Gate of Chaos


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I pulled my hands out of reach.

Keon snatched my hands in his anyway, encompassing them in his large, warm grip. He pressed them into a double decker palm sandwich. “Helena, don’t forget that Chaos dragons were a luck charm, too. All the reasons you accept humanity can’t be warned and we can’t establish contact are the exact same reasons you’re needed. Both species need the edge possibilities you can create. We need a miracle for this to end well.”

“I don’t want to be a dark luck charm,” I whispered.

“I know you don’t.” He pressed harder. “And I tell myself in moments like this that this is theonlyway to do something good. You’ve been saying that since the beginning.”

Goddamnit, Keon confronting my emotional pleading with irrefutable logic.

He drew me close, engulfing me in his embrace. “I don’t want to give up either. I don’t want to admit this is the end either. I don’t want to see what comes next. And we don’t have to. We could go into stasis.”

There was no chance I was dipping out for a nap while my family lived through the apocalypse. “I haven’t been in K’Dol since I molted, though. I have you three now. Keon, I’m afraid,” I lowered my voice, “I’m afraid whoever Immoalen’s clients were were angry they didn’t get their shipment.”

“I know what happened in Atlantis was horrifying, and I know what we asked you to do was grotesque, but how reasonable is that fear?”

“How reasonable is it I’m a legendary sort of Chaos dragon spontaneously delivered right from the cosmos? Can we not usemakes senseas the standard here? Because all this stopped making sense alongtime ago.”

Keon leaned back into the couch. I tucked my knees up and snuggled into his side. He sighed, his breath whistling in his throat. With my ear against his chest, I heard the steady, slow beat of his heart, and under that, the faint, damp rattle in his lungs.

Akoni and Auryn came back up the exterior steps and filed into the living room. Akoni’s obnoxiously bright neon green shendyt was slightly damp, but Auryn’s formal navy blue was completely dry. What trouble had they gotten into?

“Verdict?” Akoni asked.

“I’m inclined to say yes,” Keon said to Akoni.

“You are?” I raised my head. “Since when?”

“I had to mull it over. I believe Earth belongs to humanity. I hate the idea of leaving something on the table so we can be comfortable. And you’re right that we haven’t gotten here because itmakes sensein any conventional way. But I still think this has a shit risk/reward ratio, I don’t like it, and I don’t have a lot of faith you aren’t going to be excessively reckless after what happened topside and with Maren.”

Auryn’s fingers found sore spots around my ankle joint. “Agreed.”

Akoni took up the coffee table seat while Keon gave me a gentle squeeze. “But, if you give us your word to not chase things into the woods, I’m not going to ask any of us to sleep with a bunch ofwhat ifs.”

Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to cry. “I swear I will be careful. ”

Auryn tilted his head. “How dangerous will this be?”

“Incredibly dangerous for probably no reward,” Keon said frankly.

“But if there is a reward?” Akoni arched a brow.

“Either a prize like the one you got out of that egg vending machine or a stack of fresh blueberry pancakes.”

“Like one of those plastic egg vending machines?” I asked Keon while Akoni brightened at the idea of more pancakes.

“He got a single warm breath mint.”

I recoiled. “Awarmbreath mint from a roadside vending machine that probably hasn’t been serviced in ten years?”

“Exactly.”

Akoni rolled his eyes. “It tasted fine.”

“You think flavored condoms taste good. Shush. Keon, next thing you’ll tell me is he tried to eat the urinal cake.”

“I instructed him on urinals the first time topside,” Auryn said. “And specifically advised him tonottouch the cake.”

“It does look like a mint, though,” Akoni said. “Mostly I am confused by the ones that are odd shapes and colors.”

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